Ramona Quimby - Age 8

Our class finished reading Stone Fox by John Gardiner and began Ramona Quimby, Age 8 this week in our reading groups. Written by beloved children's author Beverly Cleary, Ramona is a third grader that all boys and girls can relate to and enjoy. Who is Yard Ape? Ask your third grader!

Kate's Mom Comes to Visit

Kate's mom surprised us as Mystery Reader last Friday and read us two favorites -- Miss Rumphius by Barbara Clooney an Big Al by Andrew Clements . Thank you!

Congratulations from Children's Hospital !

Yesterday at the Meeting of the Eagles, our class was recognized by Children's Hospital for being the third highest fundraising class at Elmwood School, and the sixth highest class in the entire New England area! The boys and girls brought in almost $300 in coins over an eight week period in March and April. In appreciation for this achievement and to recognize the children's generosity, each child received a pen, key chain and a Free Admission Ticket to Canobie Lake Park!

3rd Place for Coins for Cures!

Mrs. Silver announced today that our school came in third place out of 60 New England Schools for this 8 week fundraiser for Children's Hospital. And, we also learned today that our class had the 3rd highest total for our school. The boys and girls raised almost $300 in spare change ! Yahoo! Congratulations for a job well done!

Mystery Readers Delight Us!

Our class is very fortunate to have a steady corp of volunteers for Mystery Reader! Here are pictures from our last few visitors - Livi's friend Ricky ( a visitor from England for the marathon), Lexi's mom and Jessie's dad. Thank you for taking time out of our day to entertain us with your family favorite picture books!

Psyche Up at the Kenya Assembly!

Can you spot yourself in this excited crowd??!!

Getting "Ready, Set , Go" for the Kenya Runners!

Next Thursday the Kenya elite runners for the Boston Marathon will come to Elmwood School for the 19th visit! Our school is so very proud of this long standing relationship with the Kenyans, many of whom often go on to win the race on Patriot's Day! This event is such a unique aspect of being a child in Hopkinton. No other school in the country has this same warm relationship with these world class athletes who come to our community for one of the most competitive marathons each year -- and often win too!. Click here to go to our school's own website for exploring the country of Kenya. Our classroom's tradition is to make a huge window sign going across the upstairs windows to greet the runners - this year we will spell out "Hakuna Matata" . These jumbo letters will greet the runners when they arrive to our school next week.

Massachusetts Animal Reports

This week we begin the research on the long awaited Massachusetts Animal Reports! Each child received one of of their top five choice animals to research. Through this guided project, each student will write a four paragraph report on the habitiat, daily life, body and interesting facts about their own animal with illiustrations to match! The entire project will take place in school with the exception of a home diarama project (more to come on that after April Vacation). Mrs. Weldon from our school library has been a huge help to us by identifying research resources for each child to access for their animal. Click here to go to the Encyclopedia Britannica on the Elmwood School Library web site.

Meteor Crater in Arizona

"Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago," and is the most well preserved crater on Earth -- right here in the USA in Arizona. As part of our moon unit the children learned why there are more craters on the moon than the Earth ... ask you child to tell you too! Click here to go to the website for this park in Arizona and to watch the video of how scientists believed this crater was formed.

Caroline's Dad Visits for a Story

Caroline's dad was waiting for us when we arrived to Library last week ! Thank you for coming to read us a book about baseball -- a spring time favorite topic!

MCAS Prep - Practice Like you Play !

Ever hear a coach say you should practice like you are playing the game? Our class will be following that advice by using the third grade MCAS tests from previous years to practice test items. Being familiar with actual MCAS tests helps reduce any anxiety the children may have about this third grade experience -- or, as athletes say, we will practice like we will play!

All of our learning throughout the year prepares the boys and girls for this MCAS test. Our goal is to feel relaxed and confident on test day and everyday! After February vacation, the class will be spending some time getting familiar with the format of the MCAS Reading test which will be administered the week of March 21st.

Alex's Mom Comes to Read

Alex's mom read "Cat and Rat" to the class which is a Chinese folk tale that explains the 12 animal cycle in the Chinese Zodiac. The Chinese Zodiac is part of the Chinese New Year celebration which we recently studied as part of our moon unit in science class. Why there is no cat in the zodiac and which animal starts the cycle every 12 years? Ask your third grader!

Caroline's Mom reads Knuffle Bunny

Who doesn't love Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems?! From the well loved, tattered copy from Caroline's house, you know Caroline and everyone else loves Knuffle Bunny too ! Thank you for coming to read to our class !

Contraction Action

This week our class has been making contractions come alive with class activities and games such as the "Contraction Fairy". What two words can we spell with the letters? Which letters will the Contraction Fairy send back to their seats to make the new contraction? The Grand Finale? Ask your third grader which contraction was the trickiest of them all!

Chinese New Year

An-Chi's mom, Mrs. Chin came into teach the children about the Chinese New Year holiday. Chinese New Year begins with the new moon, and ends with the full moon -- a perfect connection to our moon unit coming up in science! Mrs. Chin read the boys and girls a legend that explains the symbolism behind the color red and fire crackers used in the celebrations. Happy New Year! A special thanks to Mrs. Chin for preparing this lesson for the children. Mrs. Chin also has been typing the children's bio poems for us too!

Thrusha Wins the 3rd Grade Bookmark COntest

Our very own Thrusha won Elmwood School's Third Grade Bookmark Contest. Mrs. Silver announced this to the whole school and our whole class erupted in applause and cheers for Thrusha, who had just learned the big news too. Thrusha's bookmark will go on to the state competition sponsored by the Massachusetts School Library Association. If Thrusha wins the state competition, she will get to meet Governor Patrick and tour the State House in Boston! We are so proud of Thrusha and the other students from our class who submitted entries. They worked on this project out of school and created such creative contest entries!

Plimouth Plantation

Native Americans from Plimouth Plantation captivated the boys and girls with the Native American artifacts from this living history museum. Check out the slide show to the right for pictures of the class during this HPTA funded visit. If your child has not been to Plimouth Plantation, think about planning a family visit this school year. We are fortunate to live so close to this world class museum that has such a perfect tie to our third grade Social Studies curriculum.

Bio People are Back !

We have started our biography unit in class by researching Martin Luther King, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The culminating project for each student is to independently research a famous American and complete a written report that becomes part of their Bio Person! Here are some examples from previous classes. Do you recognize Teddy Roosevelt, Ruby Bridges and Abigail Adams? This project will be assigned next week.

Compare and Contrast Reports

Our most recent story in reading was Cook-A-Doodle-Doo by Janet Stevens. This humorous story is a "fractured" fairy tale based upon the classic folk tale, Little Red Hen. After reading both stories, each child wrote a two paragraph Compare and Contrast Report.
For this project, we followed the writing process and first compared the stories on a chart. After this analysis was finished, the children wrote drafts of each paragraph using a graphic organizer. Then, after revising and editing, we began our final copies. In the compare paragraph, the students individually analyzed how the stories were similar and used words such as also, both, too, similar and for example in their writing. For the contrast paragraph the children wrote about how the two tales were different while using words such as but, however, and although. I am particularly impressed with the development in their writing since the beginning of the year. Once again, a marvelous job by the boys and girls of Room 29!

Assistant Principal Ljungberg aka Mystery Reader

Our new Assistant Principal, Mr. Ljungberg, surprised the class in the Library on Friday as our Mystery Reader. He read us two very appropriate books: Snowmen at Night and Snow Day ! Have you ever wondered why your snowman might look a little disheveled in the morning ??? .... read Snowmen at Night to find out what really might be going on when you are asleep in the winter!

Can Rocks Float???

We are currently studying Rocks and Minerals in science. Today we were analyzed four samples of igneous rocks (granite, obsidian, basalt and pumice) and observed the different traits of each rock . The "lighter than air" pumice samples are unique due to the trapped air pockets that allow many of the samples to float in water ! What is an igneous rock? Ask your third grader!

Mystery Reader ... Ian's Mom!

Ian's mom surprised us last Friday as the Mystery Reader. She read us two
Jon Scieszka books, including an all time favorite The Stinky Cheese Man, and the fractuered fairy tale, The True story of the Three Pigs (according to the wolf, that is! ).

Our Amaryllis in Bloom

In early December, our class received an amaryllis bulb as a gift form Ms. Wiggin. We planted the bulb on December 7th using the soil that we rehydrated from a compacted soil disk. By December 13th, the bulb had germinated and the stem was about 5" tall. When we came back from vacation, we were greeted by this fabulous four-headed bloom!

Our class chronicled the planting process and the growth of the amaryllis in our writing journals using scientific observation, calculations and effective writing. The children determined that our amaryllis grew about 10" in just 29 days! Prior to December break we learned about the haiku form of poetry. Here is the haiku that Jacob wrote about our amaryllis is his writing journal:

Hopkinton classroom
Beautiful flower pink, green
Cold snow on the ground
-- by Jacob

Ask your child about the haiku syllabication pattern and when the other bud might burst into bloom in our window!

What Do Illustrator's Do?

What Do Illustrators Do by Eileen Christelow was analyzed in class to help reinforce the comprehension skill of sequencing and compare/contrast. "Outstanding descriptions and illustrations describing how two illustrators working on the same story can get very different results - Jack and the Beanstalk. Both illustrators talk about the book size and shape, concepts such as point of view and perspective, and decisions about typeface and medium ... Christelow shows how the same illustration would look if presented in pencil as opposed to felt-tip pen, or watercolor as opposed to colored pencil."

As a writing extension to this story, each child chose their own unique object to create a "How to Draw" booklet. Even the simplest drawing such as a smiley face was broken into six, detailed instruction pages with step by step illustrations which each began with a new transition word. These adorable drawing books were sent home for parents to enjoy in December.

December Theme Days

The week before Winter Vacation, our class enjoyed several theme days with cozy slippers, crazy hats and snowflakes. Thank you to Mrs. Lagasse and Mrs. Lehman for helping the children make their own "snowflake" from beads to take home.